And in command of the Gloucester was Lieutenant Wainwright, who had been night officer of the Maine when that ill-fated ship was blown up by a Spanish mine. The gallant lieutenant was there to avenge his lost ship.
I shall tell you later about how the Spanish ships dashed out of the harbor of Santiago on the 3d of July and what happened to them. Just now you wish to know what Lieutenant Wainwright and the little Gloucester did on that great day, and how Spain was made to pay for the loss of the Maine.
As soon as the Spanish ships came out, the Gloucester dashed at them, like a wasp trying to sting an ox. She steamed right across the mouth of the harbor until she almost touched one of the great Spanish ships, all the time firing away like mad at its iron sides.
The brave Wainwright saw two little boats coming out behind these big ones. These were what are called torpedo-boats.
Do you know what this means? A torpedo-boat is little, but it can dart through the water with the speed of the wind. And it carries torpedoes—iron cases filled with dynamite—which it can shoot out against the great warships. One of these could tear a gaping hole in the side of a battleship and send it, with all on board, to the bottom. A torpedo-boat is the rattlesnake of the sea. It is little, but it is deadly.
But Lieutenant Wainwright and the men of the Gloucester were not afraid of the Furor and the Pluton, the Spanish torpedo-boats. As soon as they saw these boats they drove their little vessel toward them at full speed. The Gloucester came under the fire of one of the Spanish forts, but she did not mind that any more than if boys were throwing oyster-shells at her.
Out from her guns came a torrent of balls like water from a pump. But the water drops were made of iron, and hit hard. The Furor and Pluton tried to fire back, but their men could not stand that iron rain. For twenty minutes it kept on, and then all was over with the torpedo-boats. They tried to run ashore, but down to the bottom they both went. Of all their men only about two dozen were picked up alive. The rest sank to the bottom of the bay.
Thus Wainwright and his little yacht avenged the Maine, and the dreadful tragedy in Havana harbor was paid for in Santiago Bay.